A new adaptation of Lord Of The Flies has sparked a backlash before filming has even begun – because the stranded islanders will be girls.
According to film website Deadline, the Warner Bros movie will be faithful to William Golding’s classic 1954 novel, with the exception of the sex of the islanders.
“We want to do a very faithful but contemporised adaptation of the book, but our idea was to do it with all girls rather than boys,” director and screenwriter David Siegel said.
“It is a timeless story that is especially relevant today, with the interpersonal conflicts and bullying.”
His filmmaking partner Scott McGehee said that telling the story with “girls rather than boys… might help people see the story anew”.
“It breaks away from some of the conventions, the ways we think of boys and aggression”, he told the website.
But the announcement sparked fury on Twitter, with some saying that the filmmakers had missed the point of the novel, about a group of stranded boys who descend into savagery when they try to govern themselves on an island.
@erinxharrison wrote: “woooow all female. Have they read Lord Of The Flies? Do they not know it’s all male on purpose?”
@EdgeOTI wrote: “An all-female Lord Of The Flies written and directed by two men?? Something a bit creepy about this no?? Anyone?”
@TheStuartWilkie wrote: “All for equal opportunity between genders but an all female remake of Lord Of The flies film seems a little bit redundant.”
@ArronJamesMusic wrote: “Lord of The Flies remake coming out, but it’s an all-girl cast? The book about the dangers of toxic masculinity? How will that work at all?”
WOOOOW all female . have they read lord of the flies . do they not know it's all male on purpose .
— erin (@erinxharrison) August 31, 2017
All for equal opportunity between genders but an all female remake of "Lord of the flies" film seems a little bit redundant.
— Stuart Wilkie (@TheStuartWilkie) August 31, 2017
They already made a female Lord of the Flies. It's called Mean Girls.
— Jason of Brakkad ⛔ (@BitterElasticat) August 31, 2017
Whether or not there will be an all-girl Lord of the Flies remake, I'd like to thank the studio for the entertainment its brought to Twitter
— Tim Harmer (@TimHarmer) August 31, 2017
Obviously didnt know the girls I went to school with. Love the Lord of the Flies tho, Roger was my favorite character. https://t.co/XpBkQHQEBi
— NC Zero (@NC_Zero) August 31, 2017
The irony being those shouting about it really prove how nasty a female lord of the flies would really get.
— Rem Oscuro (@RemOscuro) August 31, 2017
An all-female Lord of the Flies written and directed by two men?? Something a bit creepy about this no?? Anyone?
— Charlie. (@EdgeOTI) August 31, 2017
Hate to be that guy but Lord of The Flies is about toxic masculinity and it's problems. It is a feminist book. How will a female cast work?
— Alex Hinton-Smith (@AlexIsWittyOMG) August 31, 2017
Lord of The Flies remake coming out, but it's an all-girl cast? The book about the dangers of toxic masculinity? How will that work at all?
— Arron James (@ArronJamesMusic) August 31, 2017
English novelist Golding, who died in 1993, had explained how he answered when “girls say to me, very reasonably… ‘why did you write this about a bunch of boys?'”.
“Little boys… are more like scaled-down society than a group of little girls would be… this is nothing to do with equality at all,” he said.
“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.
“But one thing you cannot do with them is take a bunch of them and boil them down, so to speak, into a set of little girls who would then become a kind of image of civilisation, of society.”
The novel was famously made into a film, directed by Peter Brook, in 1963.
